Sausage stuffer



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' Jan. 26, 1943.

H. L. HUNN ET AL.

SAUSAGE STUFFERS Filed Sept. 15, 1941 Patented Jan. 26, 1943 SAUSAGE STUFFER Herbert L. Hunn and Anthony P. Vastola, Buffalo, N. Y., assignors to John E. Smiths Sons Company, Buffalo, N. Y., a corporation of New York Application September 15, 1941, Serial No. 410,846

Claims.

This invention relates generally to sausage stuffers but more particularly to a novel safety attachment therefor.

One of its objects is to provide a safety attachment for stuifers which is so designed as to normally and positively prevent the admission of air under high pressure to the stutter to operate the piston unless the cover is closed and securely held down in place ready for stufling urposes.

Another object of the invention is to pro-'vide a safety air control device, which, While simple, compact and inexpensive in construction, will prevent the building up of excessive pressure in the stuffer-cylinder below the piston and thereby afford maximum safety to the operators and eliminate danger of accidents due to excess air pressures.

A further object is to provide a safety attachment of this character which is so designed as to enable the piston to be raised slowly, as during a partial loading operation, while the cover is open.

A still further object is to provide a safety device which is capable of ready attachment to existing stuffers.

Other features of the invention reside in the construction and arrangement of parts hereinafter described, and particularly pointed out in the appended claims.

In the accompanying drawing:

Figure 1 is a front elevation, partly in section, of a sausage stulfer equipped with our safety attachment, the `cover of the stulfer being closed and the parts being in their normal stuffing position. Figure 2 is a horizontal section taken in :the plane of line 2 2, Figure l. Figure 3 is an enlarged fragmentary cross section taken on line 3 3, Figure 2. Figure 4 is a vertical section taken on line 4 4, Figure 2.

Similar characters of reference yindicate `corresponding parts throughout the several views.

Referring now to the drawing, I0 indicates the upright cylinder of a stufiing apparatus for receiving meat dough or other plastic material, and II the piston operable therein for ejecting the meat dough therefrom through the customary valved spout or nozzle I2. The lower end of the cylinder is closed and leading thereto is a pipe I3 for admitting the motive fluid, such as air under pressure, to the cylinder for raising the piston to discharge its contents.

At its open upper or delivery end the cylinder is provided with a safety ring I4 which projects inwardly a suitable distance beyond the inner wall of the cylinder to form a stop or shoulder for the piston. A cover I5 is engageable with the opening in the safety ring to normally seal the open end of the cylinder and is attached to the lower end of a clamping screw I6 provided at its upper end with a handle I'I and carried by a horizontally-swinging yoke I8 fulcrumed at one side to a pivot bolt I9 and adapted to be detachably clamped at its opposite side by bolts 25, 2I for firmly holding it against lateral and Vertical displacement. These clamping bolts terminate at their opposing ends in heads 22 which are substantially hook-shaped to slidably interlock with each other as the cover-yoke is swung to its operative position.

The safety device for preventing the admission of air under high pressure to the cylinder unless the cover I5 is closed is preferably constructed as follows:

Air under pressure for delivery to the cylinder IG through the pipe I3 is obtained from a supply pipe 23 in which is interposed a main valve Z4 and an auxiliary or control valve 25 having anoperating handle or lever 26 thereon. This control valve is a i-way type of .valve of conventional construction having four ports in its casing and two ports in its valve plug, being connected by a branch fitting 2I to one end of a T-t-ting 28 applied to the inlet end of the pipe I3, the other end of such T-tting having a branch pipe 29 connected thereto which functions as a by-pass for the air under pressure when the cylinder-cover I5 is not properly closed. Also leading from the control valve 25 are eX- haust fittings 35 and 3|, the tting 3| being connected at its outlet end to the corresponding end of the companion fitting 35. Thus, when the operating handle 2G of the valve 25 is in the full line position, shown in Figure l, to raise the piston II, air is delivered through said valve to l the branch fitting 2l and thence to the pipe I3 leading to the bottom of the cylinder I0. When the valve-handle is in the dotted line position, shown in Figure 1 tolower the piston, the air pressure is cut off to the pipe I3 and the'valve is set to exhaust the air in the cylinder through such pipe I3, branch fitting 21, valve 25, and exhaust fitting 33 to the atmosphere. During the raising of the piston the main valve 24 is open and during the lowering of the piston such valve is opened slightly as required to apply the Vacuum to `pull the piston down.

Interposed in the branch or by-pass pipe 29 is a check or safety Valve 32 and beyond the latter is an exhaust fitting 33 which preferably open downwardly and over which the palm of the hand may be conveniently placed for a purpose which will hereinafter appear. This check valve is so disposed and correlated with the cover I5 that when the latter is in its tightly closed or sealed position, the valve may be closed so that the air under pressure will not by-pass through it but will be wholly admitted to the cylinder Il) to raise the `piston II. On the other hand, when the cover is open or swung to one side, the valve 32 is automatically opened and the air under pressure is ley-passed through it, thereby preventing high air pressure being admitted beneath the piston and eliminating danger of accidents, such as the piston being blown out of the cylinder. 'Ihis check valve is attached adjacent the upper end of the cylinder and beneath the safety ring I4 by a bracket 34. Fitted in this valve is an upwardly-opening valve-plug 35 guided on a sleeve 36 and having a stem 31 rising therefrom for depressing contact with a pin 38 projecting from the hollow end or collar 33 of an aligning actuating plunger 43 adapted for detachable coupling engagement with the valve and suspended from a bracket 4I applied to and extending radially from the cover. At its upper end this actuating plunger has a knob 42 and interposed between the latter and the bracket 4I is a spring 43 which tends normally to raise the plunger to bring its pin 33 out of abutting engagement with the valve-stem 3l and permit the valve-plug 35 to be opened upwardly by the air pressure admitted to the by-pass pipe 29. The valveplug is detachably held down in its closed position by depressing the actuating plunger 43, the collar 39 thereof having coupling pins 414 projecting radially and inwardly thereof for releasable engagement with companion L-shaped notches 45 formed in the valve-guide 3'5, whereby, upon depressing and turning the actuating plunger a quarter of a turn, the valve-plug is lowered and closed against its seat and retained in` such position until released by a reversal of these steps.

Rising from the cover I5 at one side thereof is a stop lug 46 which normally extends at its upper end into the channeled bottom side cf the swinging cover-yoke I3 to prevent turning of the cover relative to the yoke and to insure alinement of the plunger 40 with the safety valve 32.

The operation of the stuifer and its safety device is as follows:

In the normal operation, the cylinder I is lled with the meat dough, the cover I is closed tightly, and the safety valve actuating plunger 43 is depressed and coupled with the valveguide 33 to lower and retain the valve-plug 35 closed to prevent luy-passing of the air through the safety valve 32. The handle 26 of the control valve 25 is then moved to the raised position shown by full lines in Figure 1 to admit air to the cylinder and the main air valve 24 is opened slowly to gradually build up suicient stuffing pressure, whereupon the piston II is raised and the meat dough discharged through the spouts I2.

After the contents of the stuffer have been discharged and it is desired to lower the piston to re-charge the cylinder, the -main air valve 24 is closed and the handle of the control valve 25 is moved to its lower position shown by dotted lines in Figure 1 to cut off the air to the cylinder and exhaust it from the same through the exhaust fitting 33. When the high pressure is exhausted from the cylinder, the safety valve actuating plunger 4B is disconnected from the valve 32 and elevated to its released position by the spring 43, after which the cover I5 is raised and swung to one side. The main valve 24 is now opened to create a vacuum in the cylinder through the communicating exhaust ttings 3l), 3| and pipe I3 to effect the lowering of the piston. The piston may also .be raised slowly and without danger when the cover is open, as when partially filling the stuffercylinder, by moving the handle of the control valve 25 to its raised position, slowly opening the main valve 24 and at the same time holding the palm of the hand over the by-pass exhaust fitting 33.

While manifestly simple, compact and inexpensive in construction and reliable in operation, this device affords maximum safety to the operators of stuffing apparatus and positively prevents the admission of excess air pressure under the discharging piston unless the cylinder-cover is securely closed.

We claim as our invention:

1. A stufng apparatus, comprising a cylinder open at its upper end, a piston operable therein, a cover for the open end of the cylinder including means for actuating it to and from its closed position, means for introducinga fluid medium under pressure into said cylinder to raise the piston therein, a valve for controlling the flow of such medium into the cylinder, a by-p-ass connection interposed in said huid-introducing means between its connection to the cylinder and said control valve, a valve in said by-pass connection for governing the exhausting cf the fluid medium therethrough, and an actuating means for the by-pass-governing valve applied to the cover for closing the former when the latter is in its `closed position, said last-named valve and its actuating means having complementary coupling elements thereon for detachably retaining such parts in valve-closing position.

2. A stuffing apparatus, comprising a cylinder open at its upper end, a piston operable therein, a cover for the open end of the cylinder including means for actuating it to and from its closed position, means for introducing a fluid medium under pressure into said cylinder to raise the piston therein, a valve for controlling the ow of such medium into the cylinder, a by-pass connection interposed in said fluid-introducing means between its connection to the cylinder and said control valve, :a valve in said by-pass connection for governing the exhausting of the fluid medium therethrough, and an actuating means for the by-pass-governing valve applied to the cover for closing the former when the latter is in its closed position, said means including a depressible member engagealble with the stem of the icy-pass valve for moving it to a closed position, a spring applied to said depressible member for normally urging it to a valve-opening position, and complementary coupling elements applied to said by-pass valve and its actuating member for releasably retaining the latter in its valve-closing position.

3. A stuiing apparatus, comprising a cylinder open at its upper end, a piston operable therein, a cover for the open end of the cylinder including means for actuating it to and from its closed position, means for introducing a uid medium under pressure into said cylinder to raise the piston therein, a valve for controlling `the iiow of such medium into the cylinder, a by-pass connection interposed in said duid-introducing means between its connection to the cylinder and said control valve, a valve in said by-pass connection for governing the exhausting of the uid medium therethrough, an actuating means for the by-pass-governing valve applied to the cover for closing the former when the latter is in its closed position, said last-named valve and its actuating means having complementary coupling elements thereon for detachably retaining such parts in valve-closing position, and a tting applied to the exhaust end o-f said oy-pass connection and over which the palm of the hand is adapted to be placed for governing at the will of the operator the exhausting of the uid medium therethrough to regulate the raising of the piston in the cylinder.

4. A safety attachment for fluid-pressure-operated stuiiing apparatus having a cover movable to an open and closed position, comprising an exhaust connection adapted to be interposed in the fluir pressure line of the apparatus and having a check valve therein, a bracket projecting radlally from the cover and having a valve-actuating member suspended therefrom for cooperative applied to said actuating member and said valve for releasably retaining the latter in its closed position.

5. A safety attachment for iluidpressure-op erated stuing apparatus having la cover movable to an open and closed position, comprising an eX- haust connection adapted to be interposed in the iluid pressure line of lthe apparatus and having a check valve therein, including a stem rising therefrom, a bracket projecting radially from the cover and having a valve-:actuating plunger suspended therefrom for movement relative thereto and for alining cooperative relation With said valve in the closed position of the cover, a spring applied to said plunger for normally urging it to valve-opening position, and coupling elements applied to said valve and its actuating plunger for releasably retaining the valve in its closed position. i

HERBERT L. HUNN. ANTHONY P. VASTOLA. 

